Experimental and numerical simulation, by an arc-jet facility, of hypersonic flow in Titanas atmosphere

This paper summarizes experimental and numerical results on high enthalpy hypersonic flows in nitrogenamethane mixtures. The experimental results have been obtained by the Small Planetary Entry Simulator (SPES), an arc-jet hypersonic wind tunnel in operation at the University of Naples aFederico IIa. The facility has been used in the past to simulate entry conditions into Earthas and Marsa atmosphere and has recently been upgraded to simulate entry into Titanas atmosphere. Numerical simulations of the flow field in the facility, for a nitrogenamethane mixture in chemical nonequilibrium have been performed. The chemical species and the heat flux distributions on a calorimeter located in the arc-jet test chamber have been computed. The ability to perform a numerical rebuilding of the facility, by comparing numerical and experimental results has been investigated. The paper also highlights the importance of the wall catalyticity for the characterization of the thermal response of materials in high enthalpy flow.